Judge rules against teacher tenure state law

A judge in Guilford County has entered a preliminary injunction to stop implementation of a state law concerning teacher tenure.

Judge Richard Doughton issued the injunction on the grounds that the law is unconstitutional.

Now, teachers are waiting to see how this will impact every county. Union leaders believe the ruling will support its lawsuit coming up in just a few days.

"It's a great day for public education in North Carolina, and definitely for classroom teachers," said Mark Jewell, the vice president of the North Carolina Association of Educators.

The ruling essentially blocked the almost year-old law that grants contracts to 25-percent of teachers. They are contracts that supply small pay bumps, and gets rid of teacher tenure by the year 2018.

The goal of the law is to improve performance in the classroom. Instead it sparked outrage all over the state.

"To ask some teachers in the building to receive payment while others across the hall, who are working just as hard, just as talented, just as dedicated, is not the way to build collaboration or morale," said Jewell.

Gov. Pat McCrory has even said the implementation process of this law needs fine tuning, and has said that's something they can work on in the upcoming short session.

Meantime, school districts have been fighting back. Guilford County filed its lawsuit last month. Shortly after that, Durham Public Schools joined in.

"It's a big victory, not only for Guilford County Schools, but also for school districts in general," said Jewell.

It will still be a few days before the judge's written order of the ruling will be released -- explaining its full scope.

Jewell believes it could impact not just Guilford County, but all school districts in North Carolina.

The Durham public school board officials told ABC11 that they were happy with the ruling.